I recently had the good fortune to interview Kelly Patterson, Jones Day’s Document Center Support Coordinator. I had heard that she was doing some ingenious work on the Center’s SavvyAcademy LMS portal to drive more interest and engagement, so I wanted to tell her story.

My number-one takeaway? Kelly is a marketer at heart, having spent part of her life as a retail shop owner. So, when she looks at her LMS dashboard, she basically sees a shop window!

“One of the things I learned in retail is that you always want to have new content in your window,” she explains. “I was always changing my shop windows up. The LMS is similar. You want to get people to think, ‘What’s that?’ and walk into your store.”

Kelly says that she joined Jones Day in February 2020 and the Document Center was not utilizing the LMS, which they call the “Tech Academy,” to its capacity.

“The way I saw our Tech Academy when I arrived was like an abandoned old schoolhouse,” she recalls. “No one was adding new content, so no one was visiting.”

During Kelly’s training with Katy Lumley, Savvy’s LMS Product Manager, she discovered that the banners across the top of the portal could be customized and animated to transition through three different templates.

“I thought, ‘Ah! This is a great way to publicize what’s new and why people should want to visit,” says Kelly.

But Kelly wasn’t satisfied to just put a course description in the banners… she wanted a theme! And as a movie buff, she realized that “Now Playing” and “Coming Attractions” could be enticing ways to engage learners.

It’s the Content, Silly

But Kelly also knows that, even if you have the most elaborate marketing efforts, you still need to have a product that people want. You don’t want people to enter your store only to walk out empty-handed!

“I want this LMS to be helpful to our document specialists, who are very high-end, motivated, smart people,” explains Kelly. “They work on 18 different platforms. They have the biggest demand for knowledge. Every time they enter the LMS, I want them to see something new and find something helpful. That is my ultimate goal.”

Therefore, Kelly has loaded the LMS with the SavvySMART Content Library, which came with the LMS subscription, as well as other content that she knows her specialists need. She loads everything from how-to webinars to soft skills trainings. She’s even grabbed trainings that lived outside of the LMS, like an Excel Bootcamp, and brought it into the LMS.

“The LMS is a good place to keep everything under one umbrella,” she explains.

Word of Mouth = Proof of Success

Kelly is happy to report that the Jones Day Document Center Tech Academy is no longer an abandoned old schoolhouse. In fact, she’s starting to see word-of-mouth traffic. She’s also launching an internal Forum on the LMS to allow users to share their knowledge, tips and experiences.

“I think the Savvy LMS is an incredible resource,” she says. “I hope our people just continue finding what they need and keep coming back for more.”